


Hand of the Gods

by OldDVS



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mystrade only in the past, Not my usual, anti alpha beta omega, avoid this if you actually like the A/B/O concept, death of a characacter mentioned, don't cross Mycroft Holmes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:28:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25385299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OldDVS/pseuds/OldDVS
Summary: Mycroft Holmes makes a decision for the world.
Relationships: Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	Hand of the Gods

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably going to get me a lot of flack. I've sat on it for a year, thinking about it. Don't read if you are in love with the idea of Alpha/Beta/Omega. Because, as you can probably tell, I'm not.

The afternoon sun angled across his desk. Mycroft Holmes tapped his finger on the dark wood while staring towards the computer screen. He didn't see the screen. His attention was keenly focused inward. 

He hesitated. Mycroft Holmes was not one for hesitation, but this was undoubtedly the most important decision he would ever make. Once he typed in the code, he would destroy the world. 

He told himself that he was not the only one making this decision. There had been meetings. Summits. Research. Years of research. Scientists. Many scientists. And quite an astonishing amount of money spent on it all.

History would judge him. His finger would be the one on the trigger and he would bear the brunt of...everything. He would be hero or villain for all time. 

He'd be able to sleep at night. Probably.

He felt the urge to call Dr. Radcliff and ask one more time. Are you sure? Will it work as you said? She was brilliant. Beyond that. He had barely followed her first explanations, and had studied intensely to be able to understand her subsequent presentations. For a time he had considered bringing in his brother, Sherlock. Sherlock had always been better at the hard sciences than Mycroft. But in the end, he had not. 

His own decision.

His own destiny.

One long finger reached out. Tapped the code and the fail-safe pattern. It was done. His mind echoed with the word. Done.

He smiled. Carefully, he stood up, his body protesting all the hours he had spent at this desk. By the time he reached the door, he was standing tall, and he opened it with confidence. The crowd of eleven men and women stood up as he walked out, and the conversation hushed.

“It is done.”

There was silence. Then Lady Smallwood said calmly, “Good. To reverse engineering,” she said, handing him a glass and lifting her own. He brought it to his lips and drank. A sour vintage, but how elegantly appropriate. 

“It will be a long four years.” That was how long it would take for the entire world to be covered. He took another sip. The taste had not improved. 

“I keep wondering who they are. Were.” Sanna Omenth had joined them. 

Lady Smallwood snorted. “I just wonder why. What were they up to, that they decided to change the very biology of another race?”

“That assumes an alien race,” Omenth pointed out. “I still lean towards the idea we did this to ourselves, somehow.”

“If so, it went horribly wrong. Besides, a thousand years ago, no one on this planet had the knowledge necessary. Stone knives and bearskins,” Smallwood said. The younger generation didn't get the reference, but Mycroft smiled slightly. 

Dr. Radcliff joined them in time to catch the end of it. She didn't comment. After all, they had said it all before. Argued it all out. Was it alien visitors who wished to make humanity more like themselves? Or to derail the human race into a barbarity which would curtail their advancement? All they knew was that it was most likely deliberate and not a series of random mutations. Did aliens still watch to observe the point humans advanced enough to detect the meddling in their genes? Were they interested in what choices would be made, and how they would be implemented?

Would their strike back work? Ironic if it killed the human race off. If there had been some disease held at bay by the mutations, which would now kill everyone. In which case, Mycroft Holmes had pulled the rope which rang the death knell. He could almost hear the clang of it echoing down the corridors of time.

“It was the right thing to do.” Dr. Radcliff took a sip from her own glass. And winced. “We could have found something better to toast the occasion,” she observed. “Unless this is poisoned? Wouldn't that be ironic? Potters plotted against?”

The right thing to do? They would never know, really. It would take two generations or more to know for sure. Mycroft said, “We will still be a slave to our biology.”

“But it's our own biology. Not one imposed on us by...something or someone else. We're complicated enough on our own.” She put the glass down on the table behind her. Mycroft set down his as well. He had something more drinkable at home. When could he go home?

Yes, the human species was complex, and perhaps they would not be as complex, once there were only Betas on earth. When Alphas and Omegas had been pruned away. Beta. Even the term was indicative. Second best. A bland norm of redundancies, audience to the stormy drama of Alpha and Omega lives.

At least no one would be killed directly by what they had done. The agency of this change was benign; it would merely ensure that the genetic mutations which caused Alphas and Omegas would be gone. No other side effects. That they knew about. Yet, there would be violence. Murder, hate crimes, fearful reactions by individuals and countries. They would question the consortium's right to develop this vector and Mycroft's right to make the ultimate decision.

He had studies, statistics, projections. Those said that his actions would reduce economic imbalances within society, as well as almost eliminate slavery. Increase choice within relationships. Lengthen lives. Improve the health of child-bearing individuals, reduce infant mortality. Give children the one-on-one parenting even their society knew was important. The economy would take a hit but then improve. The removal of the insanity of rut and heat and biologically induced emotion should result in a more peaceful society. Two million lives a year saved, the scientists had predicted.

Reduce. Not eliminate. 

Should.

Predicted.

If his Gregory had not died in childbirth, would his decision have been otherwise?

Perhaps.

Some one had proposed another toast. He sighed as he picked up his glass again and drank deeply. To the new world, then. Whatever it might become.


End file.
